“There is no doubt that this group performed violent acts, including ‘tree-spiking,’ as part of their platform for getting attention in America,” he said.
The club, which represents thousands of U.S. hunters, weighed in as Ms. Stone-Manning faces mounting criticism over a 1989 tree-spiking incident, which also prompted Obama-era Bureau of Land Management director Bob Abbey to pull his support last month.
Ms. Stone-Manning, who previously worked for Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democrat, and former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, was involved in Earth First from about 1988 to 1991 while attending graduate school at the University of Montana.
She became embroiled in a federal eco-sabotage case after she retyped and mailed an anonymous letter to the Forest Service warning that 500 lbs. of metal spikes had been driven into trees in Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest.